Vogue

I’ve been watching a ton of documentaries in my free time recently and it’s actually a lot less boring than it sounds. I think that documentaries have a bad reputation, they are really insightful without being dull and drab!

The September Issue is a documentary that followed the staff of Vogue Magazine through the entire planning and production of the 2007 September issue of Vogue. The film features Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, and Grace Coddington, creative director of Vogue.

Although it’s not as action packed as The Devil Wears Prada, The September Issue is definitely as drama-filled. I really liked this documentary because it depicts what it is actually like to work for a magazine, through all of the ups and downs. It also does a really good job of showing the creative process behind the stories in the magazine.

It’s been a rough couple of days for many people on the East Coast. We haven’t seen a storm like this in decades and the damage the storm caused was devastating. Thankfully, my family and I weren’t affected much by the storm. Many of my friends are without power, cell service and hot water and we haven’t had school all week. Trees have fallen left and right and live wires lay in the streets.

I’ve had a couple of boring days. I haven’t had school since Friday and we aren’t supposed to go back until Monday. Most of the time I just stayed home and spent quality time with my family. It’s getting cold as well so I’m taking advantage of the down time to make some tea and read all my copies of Vogue and Nylon that I haven’t had the time to read yet.

This morning we watched the documentary called The September Issue and it was actually quite fascinating. It depicted the extensive process behind perfecting and publishing the September issue of the esteemed Vogue magazine. Of course, Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue and world-wide style guru, starred in much of the video as well as some of her employees.

After watching this movie I respect the pages of magazines way more than I had before; now I just look at a page and muse over how much effort it took to produce that page. The movie takes you behind the scenes of photo shoots, meetings, fashion shows, and much more. If you are interested in the fashion industry and have not yet seen this documentary I would definitely recommend it.

Then in the afternoon, a guest speaker, Tami Ruiz, came to my class to share with us her experiences as the broadcast producer for CBS Saturday Morning. She stressed to us how important attention to detail is and how hard her job actually is. She must make sure everything is perfect for the show and she must minimize the amount of unforeseen problems that may occur on air.

Tami encouraged taking as many different internships as possible (like all of my other teachers!) and she said that exploring the field to find your niche is very important. Today I learned that there is such a huuge difference between print PR and media PR and that I have a LOT more to learn.

P.S. She won two Emmy’s in production!! So cool right?!

Once again I’m excited for tomorrow because we are going to visit a NYC designer showroom! But sadly, tomorrow is my last day of the program and i really think i’m taking a lot out of this experience!